As one might expect once the unit entered larger-scale production in anticipation of a September release, leaked images from factory workers in China of the next release of iPhones are increasing in frequency, and are increasingly likely to be legitimate. The images thus far have revealed little in the way of changes to the design or casing of the next iPhones, likely to be called the "iPhone 6s" and "iPhone 6s Plus," despite rumors of significant new features.

In response to Jim Dalrymple's troubles with Apple Music and its problematic integration with iTunes and iTunes Match, Marco Arment wrote a piece recently that provided a good explanation of why this seems to have reached a tipping point. While Arment highlighted a range of issues, one that he said he didn't want to get "started on" was the Music iOS app. In the absence of Arment's views, I have put forward what my issues with the Music app for iOS are here.

If you've been following our Wednesday Pointers column over the last nine weeks, you'll know that the column on that day was devoted to documenting the process of writing a book, and then turning that manuscript into a real, buyable, out-in-the-world e-book and paperback. That book, William Gallagher's The Blank Screen: Blogging, is now available -- and an e-book version of the columns has also been created.

Today's Pointers column was inspired by a real-life incident in which an acquaintance asked me for help in picking out a new iPad. Knowing that they had a fourth-generation iPad -- not far removed from the iPad Air 2 that I have -- I asked why. "Doesn't work anymore," they grumbled resentfully. "Lots of crashes, some apps don't even launch now." I asked if it had ever been turned off. "Every night," they said. I said, "no, not put to sleep -- turned off." "You can do that?!" they exclaimed.

Welcome to Daily Deals, the post where the staff of MacNN searches online retailers for offers, bundles, sales, and discounts on hardware, software, games, and gadgets for you, the discerning reader. Still-active deals from yesterday are accompanied by a new wave of offers, including Onkyo headphones for $60, an external Toshiba 1TB hard drive and Wi-Fi adapter for $65, and all of the Harry Potter movie franchise films in various formats.

A new study by Strategy Analytics has confirmed Apple CEO Tim Cook's claim that iPhone sales were up a staggering 35 percent year-over-year, making Apple the smartphone maker with the second-highest mobile phone shipments overall, including "feature phones." The remaining-but-shrinking market for low-end smartphones and feature phones is what keeps Samsung in first, but Apple's marketshare rose to 10.9 percent share, compared to last year's 8.2 percent.

The world seems to hate email, but it isn't going anywhere -- and those of us who like it are bemused at attempts to replace it. Microsoft Send didn't strike a chord with us but actually, maybe Bee 1.0 does. It's definitely got a place in adding convenience and speed to emails, though probably not if you're a heavy user of Apple's Mail, and definitely not if you're wedded to Gmail or Outlook.

Google has responded to France's request for the European "Right to be Forgotten" law to be expanded to cover all Google search pages, suggesting it to be a bad idea for Internet users as a whole. French data protection regulator CNIL's formal notice for delisting of requested links has been declared by Google global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer as a "troubling development that risks serious chilling effects on the web."

This week in the MacNN Forums, members discuss their hopes and dreams that one day we will see a , with many saying that it's probably still a long way off. One Fresh-Faced Recruit is wondering if their MacBook from 2009 can actually handle 8GB of RAM, and has a few questions about Yosemite.

Currently at Apple's online store, there is a wide selection of refurbished iMacs on sale with prices starting as low as $929. A $170 price drop on the refurbished 21.5-inch iMac with a 1.4GHz Intel dual-core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 500GB hard drive makes the price $929. A $230 discount is offered on the refurbished 21.5-inch iMac with a 2.9GHz Intel quad-core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 1TB hard drive, now $1,269.

App development has taken off in the last few years, making it increasingly difficult to stay on top of all the latest versions. To help all of you out, we here at MacNN are dedicated to sorting through new update releases, and highlighting some of the important ones, as well as showcasing apps that we find to be interesting. Today, we look at revisions to Pagico, FCS Remover, Vinoteka, Call Recorder for FaceTime, File Juicer, and MTR.

Every day, alongside our regular Daily Deals post, we are highlighting some of the offers available on our own MacNN Deals page. Today's offering includes an unusual alarm clock, a cooking thermometer for your iPhone, and the ability to change the mood of a room using Bluetooth-equipped lightbulbs.

There's reviewing and there's reviewing. You know that the tiniest single-function utility gets examined, turned upside down, poked about with and possibly even shaken a bit. You also know that doesn't take long. There are things like Microsoft Word which take a month or more of serious use with betas and previews before more serious use with the final release. Then there's Vellum 1.2.5. We've had this software for about six months, maybe seven. You can't say we're quick with the news on this one, but complete, we are.

This is your reminder that our own MacNN Deals page is giving you the opportunity to own a serious upgrade for your living room. The giveaway prize package is for a Samsung 50-inch 4K television, and to provide you with content to watch on the large high-resolution screen, your choice of a new set-top box from either an Apple TV, an Amazon Fire TV, or a Roku 3 Media Player.

The Apple TV may be the subject of a refresh in the near future, according to another recent rumor for the streaming set-top box. The latest version claims Apple is intending to unveil a next-generation Apple TV in September, alongside the launch of new iPhones, with it this time incorporating many updates, including an update to its operating system that allows access to the App Store, as well as voice control provided by Siri.

The Internet is obsessed with GIFs, if you haven't noticed, but we're pretty sure you have: and for good reason -- they're small, they're animated, and usually contain some of the funniest bits of things you'll see all day. If you've ever wanted to make your own GIFs, we've got a just the app for you to check out: Gif Me! Camera.

At this point, we're sure that almost everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad has at least tried out an Angry Birds game, be it the original or one of the many sequels. It's hard to go a public place without coming across some sort of Angry Birds merchandise. Billionaire developers Rovio have finally made a proper sequel, Angry Birds 2, and we sat down and took a look at it to see how it holds up to the original.

Windows 10 has been installed on over 14 million devices in the first 24 hours of its release, Microsoft claims, suggesting it to be a success. The blog post by Yusuf Mehdi, Windows marketing chief at Microsoft, advises that Microsoft still has "many more upgrades to go" in order to catch up with Windows 10 upgrade reservations, despite the high number of installations after just one day of availability.

Welcome to the Game Replay, the thrice-weekly look at the wider world of gaming by the staff of MacNN. In today's edition, Bethesda reveals Fallout 4 mod support will not be ready this year, Microsoft starts charging for Solitaire in Windows 10, Angry Birds 2 ships, and Prison Architect has a date for when it will leave alpha.

Following an earlier release of a second beta of iOS 8.4.1 for developers, Apple late on Thursday released both the second developer beta and a public beta version of the next minor update to OS X Yosemite, 10.10.5. The new build, 14F19a, comes two weeks after the first beta, and has no new information on the usual assortment of tweaks and bug fixes such releases usually entail. The final version of the update is expected ahead of the next major release, OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which should appear in September.

Following the US electronics chain Best Buy's announcement that direct Apple Watch sales would begin August 7, the Canadian branch -- which recently took over the existing Futureshop chain there -- has revealed that it will begin its own sales of the device starting one week later, August 14. The company says it will offer Apple Store-like "try-on" sessions at 20 stores, and sell the product at 50 store initially, as well as on the online site.

Let's paint a scenario for you: you're driving along, letting your iPhone serenade you with favorites from your music collection, when suddenly it plays that one song that you hate more than anything. You look away from the road to grab your phone and switch the song to something else, and in that brief moment, you've drifted into the other lane. Sound familiar? If this sounds like something that you can relate to, we'd like to introduce you to the Satechi Media Button, a Bluetooth enabled media remote designed to help you avoid moments just like that.

Dashlane, a password manager for OS X and iOS that MacNNrecently reviewed, has announced that it has brought its Password Changer feature, which makes possible extensive password management on iOS devices, to the Apple Watch. The new 3.1 version for iOS includes the feature, and also offers notifications of a security breach on monitored websites, and improves Touch ID support.

Welcome to Daily Deals, the post where the staff of MacNN searches online retailers for offers, bundles, sales, and discounts on hardware, software, games, and gadgets for you, the discerning reader. Still-active deals from yesterday are accompanied by a new wave of offers, including $170 off a MacBook Air, a Harman Kardon Bluetooth speaker for $130, and a Nintendo 3DS XL for $150.

T-Mobile has managed to post a net profit of $361 million for the most recent quarter, reversing a $63 million loss from the previous quarter and almost reaching the $391 million it brought in for the same period last year. In its successful quarter, the carrier reports total revenue of $8.2 billion, up year-on-year by 14 percent, with the per-share loss of $0.09 from last quarter being switched for an earnings per share of $0.42.

Data backup and disaster recovery company Paragon Software Group has announced the release of Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac Preview -- a previously Windows-only tool to handle all disk management tasks on OS X. In closed beta testing for two months, the public preview comes with major new backup techniques, including sector and file-level backups of any partition or disk to the Paragon Virtual Hard Drive format.